The US Coast Guard was facing calls last night to return to the doomed British yacht Cheeki Rafiki, to check whether the bodies of any of its four crew members were trapped inside. The coastguard located the boat a week after the vessel went missing.
A spokesman for the World Cruising Club, which organises boat races around the world, has said the changes of finding the crew of the Cheeki Rafiki yacht are now "non-existent".
Jeremy Wyatt told the BBC: : "I think we have to be realistic and face facts that they're not in a raft and therefore the chances of finding anyone are non-existent now."
"In some ways it's a hard fact, but I think, after a week of searching, it's really the only conclusion you can safely draw," he added.
With no sign of a life raft or of debris, and with nearly 20,000 square miles having been searched, the hunt continues for another day.
Veteran yachtsman Tony Bullimore tells ITV News that there is a "strong possibility" the yachtsmen are still alive in the life raft.